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1. Every magician has a beautiful vision for the world.
2. Every system of magic is a single artists tool, used to reshape reality.
3. If you believe, it shall exist.
4. When you call, they will answer.
5. Success and failure, is one and the same: ignorance and depression is the enemy.
6. Be like all equally, and you shall unite; refuse and separate.

INTRODUCTION

The famous Pyramid Texts herein translated for the first time
in English with commentary were found inscribed on the walls of five pyramids
at Saḳḳâreh, the ancient necropolis of Memphis
in Egypt.
These pyramids are those of the kings Unis of the Fifth Dynasty, and Teti, Pepi
I, Merenrē and Pepi II of the Sixth Dynasty. To this translation has been
added that of recently discovered additional texts, parallel and complementary,
in the pyramids of Oudjebten, Neit, and Apouit, queens of Pepi II, and of Ibi,
a king of the Seventh Dynasty, of whom little historically is known. Thus,
according to the present generally accepted chronology, these pyramids were
constructed, and apparently inscribed, between the years about 2350 to 2175
B.C. It is, however, certain that many of these texts came into existence
before the final union of Upper and Lower Egypt,
and perhaps long before that date, which is now put at about 3000 B.C. Indeed,
some of them possibly existed in oral form before the art of writing was
developed. These inscriptions together with others were after that probably
written on papyrus and potsherds, many of which in time perished, the rest
remaining in various forms until they were collected and incised on the walls
of the Saḳḳâreh h pyramids. Evidence of a date previous to about 3000 B.C. is
seen in passages which reflect events and conditions previous to the union of
the two Lands, for example, the hostility between North and South, before the
time of the first king, Menes; in the mode of burying bodies of the dead in the
sand; in the pre-civilized era reflected in the so-called Cannibal Hymn; and in
the many references to the assembling of the bones of the deceased, passages
which indicate a pre-mummification period. And in the historic period various
chronological points can be established with fair certainty, such as the time
of the Second Dynasty, when both Horus and Set were in favour in royal circles;
references to previously written material such as the "Chapter of those
who ascend" and the "Chapter of those who raise themselves up,"
1245d-e, indicating a time in the historic period in which writing became
common; and the formulae for the protection of pyramids, such as, Uts. 600-601,
which represent a date after the time of the

construction of pyramids. So that the myths and legends, the history and
philosophy, the hopes and fears of people (subjects as well as monarchs) of
many hundreds of years were finally inscribed in enduring stone, which over
four thousand years removed from our time, may now be read with comparative
ease and certainty, thanks to the modern discipline of archaeological research
and philology. The extent of this written material may be appreciated in saying
that it takes well over a thousand pages of two quarto volumes to contain it.
In the standard modern edition of the original text, together with parallels
and additions from the pyramids of Pepi II, Neit, and others, there are about
7000 lines, most of which are parallels, of more or less completeness of the
estimated 2500 lines, which occur in one or other of the pyramids; for most of
the utterances occur in more than one pyramid, but very few are repeated in all
these pyramids. Thus, the pyramid of Unis has only two hundred and eight
utterances out of a total of over seven hundred and thirty; and they with those
of the pyramid of Teti are among the oldest in the collection.

A general idea of the contents of this mass of literary material may be seen
in the detailed list of Contents preceding this Introduction; but that does not
mean that these texts present a coherent whole, for they do not; and while
there are clearly three outstanding elements in them, namely, Solar Theology,
Religion and Myths of Osiris, and the Political unification of Upper and Lower
Egypt, yet the following seven points may be taken to represent the whole
collection with fair general accuracy: 1) A funerary ritual of mortuary
offerings, connected with the corporeal reconstitution and resurrection of the
deceased king, 2) Magical formulae to ward against harm and evil, 3) A ritual
of worship, 4) Religious hymns, 5) Mythical formulae, identifying the deceased
king with certain deities, 6) Prayers and petitions on behalf of the deceased
king, and 7) The greatness and power of the deceased king in heaven.

These pyramid texts were royal texts, and during the Old
Kingdom there is no evidence that the people ever took them to
themselves and used them in their own tombs. However, at the end of the Sixth
Dynasty, Neit, one of the queens of Pepi II, had them applied to herself,
though the second person and third person masculine singular were often used
and applied to her; but during the Middle Kingdom the use of them spread to the
nobles, and in the New Kingdom parts of them were incorporated in the popular
Theban Book of the Dead.

[paragraph continues] And doubtless because of their sanctity little attempt was made to put
them in accord with changed circumstances.

When these small pyramids were built and inscribed the age of the great
pyramids, like those at Giza,
had passed, and with it the sense of royal security after this life. The great
pyramids had been entered in spite of their thousands of tons of masonry, and
kings came to look elsewhere for the assurance of a happy and glorious
hereafter. They turned to religion and magic. By mortuary offerings and
funerary rites the deceased king was armed for his future life; and by magic he
was endowed with physical and spiritual power, becoming a great god and
associating with the gods, to avoid whatever in the world to come might
otherwise compromise his destiny. The purpose of these royal texts then was to
guarantee the deceased king's resurrection and new-birth, his transfiguration
and divinity, his successful journey to heaven, and his immortality there with
the other gods. There in heaven as a great god, sometimes as the greatest of
all the, gods, the deceased king was believed to be able to overcome all
difficulties by his own might, or by identifying himself with other gods.

In the earliest of these texts two very ancient doctrines may be discerned:
that of the old heaven-god, perhaps Horus the elder, in which the deceased king
as a star was prominent, and that of the sun-god where the deceased as the
sun-god was contemplated. But the two were harmonized doubtless at a very early
period, when the celestial abode of the heaven- and star-gods became identified
with that of the solar deities. But what we do see more clearly in the Pyramid
Texts are the two opposing systems of theological thought, that of Rē of Heliopolis and that of
Osiris. The Pyramid Texts were largely solar, but long before the texts were
inscribed in the pyramids of Saḳḳâreh, there existed Osirian texts as well as
Solar ones, though there is reason to believe that the learned men and scribes
of Heliopolis were the first to make collections of their texts. And gradually
as such collections were being made, there was a tendency to include Osirian
texts, as well as, an effort on the part of Osirians to facilitate the entrance
of their texts into the great Solar collections (cf. Excursus XXVII), with the
result that there was a redaction continually going on, in which not only was
the name of Osiris introduced into the collections, especially as an epithet of
the king, such as Osiris Teti, but also the name of the solar king was
introduced into original Osirian texts. However, the great bulk of the texts
remained solar and celestial with comparatively little trace of the underworld

character of the Osirian faith. There are also traces in these texts of
other systems of theological thought than the Heliopolitan and Osirian, namely,
those of Memphis
and Hermopolis.

As one reads these ancient texts, there is a primitiveness about them which
is not unexpected, though they are never naive. There is much repetition, not
much order, contradictions, errors, and sometimes what appear to be ridiculous
statements, but in spite of all that, real poetic passages and consistent
reasoning are not lacking. There is the art to create images, figures of
speech, and metaphores in beautiful and choice language. There are paronomasiae,
parallelisms, litanies, and hymns. There are poetic expressions, such as
567a-c; real lyrics, like Ut. 362; symbolical expressions, such as 681d; and
really fine bits, like 307a-c. There are proverbs, such as 396d; and adages,
such as 444e. The most symmetrically and mechanically arranged utterance in the
whole collection is Ut. 575, which reminds one of Ps. 119. But the overall
characteristic of these texts is their religious and funerary, their magical,
mythological, and astronomic expressions, interpretations, and predispositions.

Auguste Mariette had the distinction, in the later part of his life, of
being the modern discoverer of the inscribed pyramids at Saḳḳâreh,, but it
was Maspero in 1880 working under Mariette's direction, who discovered the
first set of Pyramid Texts. They were those inscribed on the walls of the
sarcophagus chamber of the pyramid of Pepi I. Following that, he found texts in
the pyramids of Unis of the Fifth Dynasty, as well as in the pyramids of Teti,
Merenrē, and Pepi II, in addition to Pepi I, all of the Sixth Dynasty. This
work of discovery of pyramid texts did not find a continuation until the years
1920 and 1936, when the Swiss Egyptologist, Jéquier, discovered texts in the
pyramids of Oudjebten, Neit, and Apouit, queens of Pepi II, and in that of Ibi,
an obscure king of the Seventh Dynasty, besides clearing that of Pepi II, whom
Sethe records as N. (Neferkarē).

These texts usually occupy the walls of the sarcophagus chamber except the
west side, and are so disposed that the deceased king in his sarcophagus might
spiritually see and read them. Texts are also on the walls of the antechamber,
on the horizontal passages, and some are on the walls of the vestibule and even
on those of the ramp. They are normally in vertical columns, incised on the
limestone walls, some excellently done as in the pyramids of Unis and Pepi II,
others very crudely done as in that of Ibi.

As Maspero was the discoverer of the Pyramid Texts, so be was the first to
make an edition and translation of them. These were all the pyramid texts which
were known at the time of their publication in 1894. And in view of what we now
know about the difficulties of the Pyramid Texts, this edition and translation
were evidence of the genius of the great master. Even today many of his
translations accord with the best that is known on those passages, which is an
indication of his great learning and insight.

For years before the beginning of this century Kurt Sethe, whose name will
be forever associated with the Pyramid Texts, was deeply interested in
everything which concerned them. He as well as other trained Egyptologists
realized that the earlier copy of the texts was often incorrect, and that a new
and scientifically copied edition was a necessity. Accordingly, taking
advantage of the work of Dr. Heintze and Ludwig Borchardt, who were in Egypt taking impressions and photographs of the
Pyramid Texts for slips in preparation for the making of the great Berlin Wörterbuch der Aegyptischen Sprache,
Sethe made use of their material in preparing a new edition of the Pyramid
Texts. And no Egyptologist was more thoroughly prepared for such an undertaking
than Kurt Sethe. And so he began the critical and exacting task of constructing
a text principally on the basis of the five versions Unis, Teti, Pepi I,
Merenrē, and Pepi II, which was finished and published in 1908-1910 in two
great quarto volumes of over a thousand pages of hieroglyphic text, which is
now the standard text. To accompany the text, he followed them with a third
volume of critical apparatus in 1922 and a fourth of epigraphy in the same
year. Thus the great work of giving to the world the text of the oldest
collection of mythical, religious, and literary material in existence was
finished. However, the text was marred by one blemish, but not due to the
science of Sethe. It was due to the fact that a considerable Portion of the
texts in the five pyramids was broken, damaged and destroyed--a condition which
may never be completely remedied. It is along this line that Egyptologists who
were specialists in these texts have been working since the time of Sethe.
Already considerable progress has been made in the discovery of texts,
anciently copied from the texts in these five pyramids, before they were
damaged, and recorded elsewhere; in a further study of the walls of the five
pyramids themselves; and in the discovery and publishing of new pyramids and
tombs with parallel and additional texts, all which will be used in the future,
but not till after many years of archaeological research

in Egypt,
in the construction of a more complete text. Already between 1920 and 1936
Jéquier discovered at Saḳḳâreh similar texts in the pyramids of Oudjebten,
Neit, and Apouit of the Sixth Dynasty and of Ibi of the Seventh Dynasty; in
1932 the Egyptian Expedition of the Metropolitan Museum of Art discovered in
the cemetery surrounding the pyramid of Sen-Wosret I at Lisht the tomb of an
official of the Twelfth Dynasty named Sen-Wosret-Ankh, containing a long
series of inscriptions drawn from the Pyramid Texts, and published in 1937; and
in 1935 William C. Hayes published the "Royal Sarcophagi of the Eighteenth
Dynasty," containing parts of the Pyramid Texts, which are useful in
filling some lacunae in the Saḳḳâreh texts. Then older publications are
useful, such as that of de Morgan in 1894-1895 of similar texts in a private
tomb at Dahshûr; that of Firth and Gunn in 1926 of texts in the Teti Pyramid
Cemeteries at Saḳḳâreh; and that of Borchardt in 1913 of similar texts in the
mortuary temple
of Sahurē at Abuṣîr.
Then there are the Coffin Texts of the Middle Kingdom and the Theban Book of
the Dead of the New Kingdom, which contain Pyramid Texts in modified and
further modified form; as well as tombs of kings, such as that of Seti I, and
of private individuals, which contain Pyramid Texts sometimes in quite exact
quotation. All these and others may be drawn upon in the future construction of
a still more perfect version of the famous ancient Pyramid Texts of Saḳḳâreh.
Quite recently T. G. Allen of the University
of Chicago has published
a most useful guide to all parallel and illustrative Egyptian texts at present
known in his valuable book, Occurrences
of Pyramid Texts with cross Indexes of these and other Egyptian Mortuary Texts,
Chicago, 1950.

After the publication of his text, Sethe's next concern was to prepare a
translation with a commentary. The central thought in his busy years of
research as soon as the text was published was directed towards that purpose,
and by 1929 he was ready to begin. He was master of an immense accumulation of
philological, historical, and religious facts in the field of ancient Egyptian
literature, and with him were associated co-workers and colleagues, such as
Lange, Grapow, and Sander-Hansen. He began with Ut. 2 13 and by the time of his
death in 1934 had finished up to and including Ut. 506, or less than one half
of the text as he had published it. It remained for a commission of his
associates to carry on the work. This they began to do immediately after the
great master's death.

for the printer. It needed revising, especially in the later portions, and
writing. The Commission received the material left by Sethe and published it
much as it was. Before the beginning of the war in 1939 four volumes of
translation and commentary were published, which included Uts. 213-506, or
between one-third and one-half of the whole. A fifth volume is said to be in preparation.

Not counting the early and tentative translation by Maspero in 1894, Sethe's
is the only translation--itself only between one-third and one-half of the
whole--in any language of the Pyramid Texts, except one made in French by L.
Speleers, a Belgian Egyptologist in 1923-1924, remade in 1934, but without a
commentary. No translation in any other language has so far been published.
Individual scholars have translated portions here and there for their use in
works on various aspects of ancient Egyptian religion and thought, philology
and literature, customs and history, such as Kees, Junker, Drioton, Weill,
Breasted, Gardiner, Gunn, Sander-Hansen, etc.

The present translation is thus, the only complete one with full commentary
in any language. It is not as full as that part of Sethe's which is finished,
but it has been planned to be more concise in its comments, leaving longer
comments on important points for a series of Excursuses, so as not to interfere
with the proportioned flow of comment on the current text. But it has been able
to make use of large portions of the pyramids of Pepi II and Neit as well as of
publications of other pyramids, tombs, and sarcophagi brought to light since
Sethe's day. It has thus added over four hundred lines to the text, besides,
filling some smaller lacunae here and there.

It is not claimed to be a definitive translation, because we have not yet a
definitive text. Such a text and translation may never be able to be made,
because of quite natural causes. But with the further discovery of new texts
and a complete comparison with all extant later parallels in texts already
published as well as yet unpublished a future text and translation will be
called for. For that reason, in this present translation use has been made of material
later than the time of the Pyramid Texts themselves only when it was thought to
have some light to throw upon a problem difficult of solution, or when it gave
a new meaning to a passage. In other words, this is an interim translation and
commentary of the Pyramid Texts for the use not only of Egyptologists but
likewise of students of religions and comparative religions, of literature and
comparative literature, of the history of ideas and customs, and of culture and
civilization in general.

[paragraph continues] There is published with it a complete apparatus for general use such
as an analysis of each utterance with a discussion of its date, a series of
Excursuses on important subjects, a full glossary of useful terms, phrases, and
subjects, and a full index to the translation.

In translating and interpreting these texts many things have had to be taken
into consideration and many allowances have had to be made. It must he
remembered that many of these old utterances or discourses are veritable magic
formulae to procure for the deceased king all kinds of material satisfaction,
to protect him against any enemies he may meet on his way to the other world,
and to procure for him an eternal life; and that very often place names refer
to celestial locations and not to ancient places in Egypt. In keeping with
their general magical character, most if not all of these utterances begin with
the expression dd mdw, which is a
rubrical direction "to say," that is, the words are to be spoken or
recited by someone, often a lector-priest, sometimes the deceased king himself,
and sometimes by him in the first person. The rubric sometimes directs that the
petition be repeated four times. There is evidence that some of the utterances
were written in the first person singular, and were later changed to the third
person singular. Ut.
506 is a good example of a text which was surely in the first person singular
originally, but in general in translations the third person has been used
unless the form of the first person has been reproduced in the hieroglyphic
text. It has been useful to notice when the first person is used, for it is one
of the signs of an early date for the text in which it is found, for example,
Uts. 325 and 563 are late, and one of the indications is that the third person
singular is always used. On the whole, the determination of the date of a text
is rather uncertain, and sometimes impossible. There can be no systematic
ordering of the dates as J. E. D. P. of Old Testament criticism. Nor is n, the
sign of the genitive, a sure guide of date, its presence indicating a late and
its absence an early date, as the occurrence and the absence of the n in the
same sentence or compound sentence proves, Cf. 2056c.

Among the texts of the Saḳḳâreh pyramids there is evidence of redaction of
some of them, thus, Ut. 55 is a re-writing for kings of the historic period of
an older text, composed for the predynastic kings of Buto; and some long
utterances are made up of independent short parts, with some changes added by
the redactor, e.g. Ut. 468. Indeed the Pyramid Texts are to a large extent a
composition, compiling, and joining of earlier texts. Moreover, there are
corruptions

in the texts, mistakes in writing, errors in grammar and syntax,
contradictions and confusions, expressions which seem ridiculous, and illogical
expressions, most of which have been referred to in the Commentary on the text
where they occur. There are numerous paronomasiae and words of double meaning;
and superstition led to the mutilation of hieroglyphic signs of creatures which
were thought, if left whole, may be capable of injuring the deceased king, and
the fish for the same reason was used only once (218c, N.) in the inscriptions
in his burial chamber.

As there is a minimum of classification and order in the sequence of the
texts, a list of Contents of the Pyramid Texts precedes this Introduction.
Therein an attempt has been made to find groups of texts without disturbing the
sequence of the text in Sethe's edition. Consequently it often happens that we
are obliged to group some texts under the heading "Texts of Miscellaneous
Contents." However, there are many instances where texts grouped in
Sethe's edition form a natural and often perfect group, e.g. the Serpent Charms
of Uts. 226-244, or the Ferryman Texts, Uts. 300-337.

In translations an honest effort has been made to express the sense of the
original in English, with the result that many translations are literal instead
of free, thus in 1004d the original is translated "at the voice of
lamentation" instead of "at the sound of lamentation," so that
the English will be apt to be stilted instead of elegant. As in all ancient
languages, particles, such as adverbs, and conjunctions are rare, with the
result that it is often not easy to make the correct sequence or dependence,
rendering the sense of the sentence or passage uncertain. Again the same word
in different contexts may require varied renderings, such as the word ȝgb which means "flood,"
"abundance," or "violence," in accordance with the context.
To save as much space as possible, very few alternative translations have been
introduced, where in many cases the same phrase or sentence could be rendered
in different ways. In most lines of the Pyramid Texts the line as it appears in
two or more pyramids is given; in other words, in Sethe's edition every line is
given in as many pyramids as it occurs; so as a rule the earliest text is the
one followed in translating the line unless one of the other pyramids has
decidedly the best text. Where important differences occur, they are pointed
out in the commentary; but where differences are not helpful in interpretation
they are not always noted. Nor are variants in other texts not in the Sethe
edition referred to unless they are useful in a better understanding of the
meaning

of the text. Whenever "to say" occurs if in only one of the
parallel pyramids, it is used in the translation. In the Commentary on Uts.
213-506, Sethe's discussions were ever before me, and I felt myself constrained
by his logic and learning to follow him, but wherever I felt that another
solution to a problem of interpretation was better though different from his I
have not hesitated to use it. In other words, in those utterances, Sethe became
my standard unless I could improve on it, as I often did, I believe, in the
light of additional Nt. or N. texts, or still later texts, or comparative
literature or religion. In all my comments, I have felt free to draw upon any
sources, especially ancient ones, whenever I felt the need of an illustrative
idea or custom. But I have been unable to take advantage of some of the new
points made by my colleagues in their Excursuses, due to a difference of date
in the completion of the earlier parts of this work and the arrival of their
manuscript. At the same time, obvious remarks have been avoided as much as
possible, and only important differences and similarities between lines,
paragraphs, and utterances have been noted. Minor errors, whether in the
original hieroglyphics, or in Sethe's text, are not always noted, neither are
the presence or absence of an i
prosthetic, or a genitival n always
mentioned, nor has the analysis of the utterances been too meticulous in
unessential matters, for as the German proverb has it:

"Wer auf jede Feder acht,
Nie das Bette fertig macht."

The abbreviations of the pyramids in which texts so far have been found are:
W. = Unis, T. = Teti, P. = Pepi I, M. = Merenrē, N. = Pepi II (Neferkarē),
Nt. = Neit, Ip. = Apouit, Wd. = Oudjebten, Ib. = Aba, Sen = Sen-Wosret-Ankh. In the
translations of the texts of these pyramids, instead of using the different
abbreviations for the different sovereigns, the letter N. (nomen) is used
throughout. Other abbreviations may be seen in the "List of
Abbreviations" of literature. The square brackets [ ] are used to
designate a conjecture made by Sethe, or by me, which has not with satisfaction
been textually verified; the round brackets ( ) are used for explanatory words
or phrases or for alternative translations. Capitalization is used as sparingly
as possible in the translation and commentary, but when common nouns referring
to things are personified, or deified, or both, they are written with a capital
letter; but punctuation marks are used somewhat excessively, especially

where they aid the meaning. I have always made a slight departure from the
orthodox method of transliterating hieroglyphics, in the interest of
simplicity, in that I have used the accepted i when it is initial, but i
otherwise; and I use the grammatical word "gentilic" instead of the
word "nisbé." In case of the two words usually translated, the first
"soul" and the other "double," I use the transliterated
forms bȝ and kȝ, or ba and ka, to avoid misunderstanding in the
supposed English equivalents. In the case of the plural of ka, I use the form ka's
or kas, which others also use. Any
differences in the transliteration of words, in abbreviations, and in modes of
reference, etc., in the Excursuses of authors other than myself are ordinarily
retained. In broken passages, the approximate length of the broken line is
indicated by ------------

The Excursuses are meant to treat subjects ordinarily too large for the
Commentary, but the discussion is confined to the Pyramid Texts, except for
parallel and illustrative matter. The Glossary is meant to give a brief
description or definition of important words, names, phrases, and subjects
which occur in the Translation and Commentary, with as a rule only one
reference, usually the most important one. Other references may be found in the
Commentary, in the Index, or in Speleers' excellent Vocabulary. The List of
Abbreviations applies to the chief works actually used in this book; and the
Index which follows is that to the Translation alone, but which naturally serves
the Commentary as well. On account of the lack of hieroglyphic type only a few
hieroglyphs, considered essential in the comments, have been used, and are
collected together on three plates at the end of the work, but referred to in
the Commentary by plate and number. With a few exceptions of names of a general
character, only those found in the Translation and Commentary are entered in
the map, which appears at the end of the last volume.

As noted above, the only scientific edition of the hieroglyphic texts of the
inscribed pyramids was made by Sethe in 1908-1910. The texts form a collection
of 714 utterances or chapters, and although most of the utterances occur in
more than one pyramid and very few are repeated in all the pyramids in which
the texts are found, many of them are damaged and incomplete wherever they are
found in the texts published by Sethe. However, since the time of Sethe's
publication similar texts have been found in other pyramids at Saḳḳâreh of
the Sixth and Seventh Dynasties as well as in private tombs of the Middle
Kingdom, and which have been published, and are specified

above. A study of these additional texts has made it possible for me to add
in translation 386 lines to the approximately 6500 lines in Sethe's
hieroglyphic edition, and to make 57 larger restorations, besides many smaller
ones, amounting to about 40 additional lines, making in all an addition of
about 426 lines, in translation, to Sethe's original edition. The confirmation
from texts not available to Sethe of his restorations are not recorded in these
lists, but they are given in the Commentary (e.g. that in 130, while
emendations and restorations as well as all substantial additions are mentioned
in the comments on the lines where they occur. Therefore, for convenience of
reference to the published hieroglyphic texts, there follow here two lists, the
first a list of the added lines, and the second a list of the larger restorations. The additions as
well as the restorations, larger and smaller, are also recorded, at their
appropriate places in the Commentary: